Saturday, October 6, 2012

Ready To Hit the Road

In five days we take off on our first RV adventure; River and me, in a rented 27 foot motor home, experiencing life on the open road.

I have been struggling with how much to plan and how much to leave to adventure. And my latest big question was how to get us to the RV. With a dog and all of our luggage, public transportation was going to be a huge hassle. And renting a car even seemed ridiculous because of the amount of time it would be parked. I toyed with the idea of renting a car twice; one at the top of the trip and another at the tail end. But the logistics of arranging those two pick up and drop offs made me reconsider. It turns out to be worth the extra money just to know that that rented car is going to be waiting for me at the end, so that when I drop off the RV, we can just load into the car and drive home.

So, I’ve rented a car for nine days. I’ll pick it up from the airport the day before. I can spend that day re-acclimating River to the concept of driving, and then pack up the car at a leisurely pace. Early in the morning we’ll get up and leave for the RV rental yard in Fife.

I’ve been fortunate to run into a few people recently who could answer some burning questions I had about planning. Specifically about campsite hookups and about the roads I was looking at driving. I was set straight on what hookups are and what campsite info I needed and I was reassured that the highways I saw on the map weren’t treacherous and nauseatingly winding. and so I’ve come up with a plan and I plan to stray from it, but at least I have one.

So, first stop will be Crystal Mountain! And then I’ll stop in Yakima, and then go west to pass through the Mt Rainier National Forrest and near some pretty big lakes. There are campgrounds there that I definitely want to look into. And then I can head west and possibly all the way to Aberdeen, which is touching the Pacific coast. As I make my way back up north toward Fife, I may have time for a quick stop in Olympia.

It’s a very loose plan, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Some of the campsites say “first come, first served”. And since it isn’t the high season for either summer vacationing or skiing, I’m confidently taking my chances.

It feels good to finally have all of the major elements in place and basically have nothing left to do but pack, plan (loosely) and go.

My biggest question now is: Where will I find food on the road. Being a terribly picky eater, I'm not looking forward to Truck Stop Diners or Convenience Markets. Having the dog with me, I'm not looking for Fancy Restaurants or Snooty Grocery Stores. Is it too much to ask to run across a farmers market every few days?